5 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

It's Tuesday, which means that Monday mooching is no longer a viable excuse for your listlessness. I'm afraid that we are officially into the week. To ease the blow that I have just delivered, I give unto you, this week's offering of all things that you need to know - also it's Shrove Tuesday AKA pancake day. If that doesn't upturn the corners of your mouth then I'm sorry to say but you're a lost cause. It's minus any fashion week news btw - more of that to come. So enjoy the fruits of my labour and pop culture's ability to continually shock and excite.      

1/Stop Right Now

Did you get my sneaky little reference there or was it the picture that gave it away? I'll stop stalling now, hitting up the number 1 space is the release of four new Spice Girls songs. Recorded as part of their final studio album Forever, all the way back at the start of the aughts, the songs didn't make the cut, but fast forward fifteen years and here they are. They weren't wrong when they sang 'Viva Forever'. 

2/ Six Years Later & No Change

Kanye is known for a lot of things, namely his man cleavage, booty-baring wife and his incomprehensible rants, oh yeah, and he's a rapper/(auto-tuned) singer. Kanye West is full of self-importance, exemplified during the 2009 Grammy's when he stormed Taylor Swift's acceptance speech, a party trick he thought he'd bust out again at this year's festivities during Beck's 'moment'. The world's reaction was a sequence of shocks - in the plural. At first we were aghast - not again!- then it was like, 'wow Yeezus got a sense of humour' and then it came to light that actually it was the two-double-zero-nine all over again. Though Ye was quick to point out that he has no problem with Beck, it's with the establishment and he hopes that he and Beck can 'still go play basketball and stuff'. A case of bad timing? or just someone caught up in their own self-involved disillusionment? 

3/ The Name Game 

You can find out some seriously interesting stuff on the internet, for example did you know that Zara was almost called Zorba after the film 'Zorba The Greek'? However, a bar in the same area had already snagged the name, so after a quick shimmy around of the letters, et voila! Zara was born and the rest as they say is history. Read more at whowhatwear.

4/ Update on the baby name

So we know who the baby daddy is of Blake Lively's baby girl (Ryan Reynolds FYI), but we still don't know the name. Until now - sort of. Blake and Ryan may or may not have named her James. An odd name  for a girl some might say, but gender fluidity is widely becoming recognised (the fashion industry has long embraced androgyny, Selfridges is to stock gender neutral fashions and ye old 'pink is for girls, blue is for boys' adage has long been thought restrictive). Plus, to go by other Hollywood tots, she could have ended up bearing the name of a fruit... It's all about perspective guys.

  
5/ The Real Supermodel 

Cindy Crawford needs no introduction, among the 'Big Six', lauded for her exceptional beauty and now the (albeit unintentional) catalyst for the great body debate after an un-retouched photo of her was leaked. The discussion that has ensued has weighed in heavily on this dichotomy between the 'ideal' and the 'flawed'. Is it a flaw if one doesn't have a six pack? Do you really need taut skin to be considered 'ideal'? Retouching is a powerful tool, it conceals the very realness that we try to escape, it is both aspirational and destructive, and this is surely a positive step towards the female body being universally accepted in all its natural beauty. To borrow Tyra Banks' term (it doesn't happen often so don't be put off) we should embrace the 'flawsome' - awesome because of their very 'flaws' - a powerful sentiment of self-acceptance.   

This was also the week that saw Drake drop a surprise album, '50 Shades Of Grey' hit the big screen (I'm watching it tonight, eek), the controversial Mars One Project come one step closer to fruition (with five Britons shortlisted for the one way trip) and Kimmy K managed to appear naked whilst seemingly wearing 'clothes' (unless anyone other than Jane Fonda considers a bodysuit 'clothes'). A picture is needed of this last one to punctuate my point with an emboldened exclamation! 

(There's nothing like ending on a WTF?!?!?)

(Image via: mirror.com, sickchirpse.com, visituzbekistan.travel, popsugar.com, smh.com.au & whowhatwear.com)